Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I agree with the quote wholeheartedly. If it's a choice between anything and a new book, the book is always going to win :) People always look at me rather strangely when I tell them that the reason I work in libraries is because I heart books - little books, big books, bad books, brilliant books, fiction, nonfiction - if it's got words I'll read 'em! I have to guiltily admit that wherever I am I recommend titles for people to try *shamefaced look* As a result of this I find myself promoting books, and our library services, in the most unusual places: buses, Twitter, trains, standing in queues, with the checkout operator at Countdown Manukau, occasionally on Bebo, at the bus stop, on Facebook, over the counter and, last but not least, in our NextReads eNewsletters. Which, not-coincidentally, is the subject of today's post - a slightly long-winded list (I did *try* to keep it short and simple) of the top 5 November eNewsletters I enjoyed the most. Am I playing favourites? Yes. However, my favourites do change from month to month for various reasons. And my #1 choice might just surprise you :)

Sunday, November 21, 2010

"Life is a B Movie: it's stupid and it's strange, it's a directionless story, the dialogue is lame, but in the 'he said she said' sometimes there's some poetry, if you turn your back long enough and let it happen naturally."- Ani Difranco

Sometimes, life is a B movie but, you know, sometimes B movies are B movies, too. I'm guessing, though, that films that earn oodles of money in their first opening day are not B movies. Or are they...? 'Harry Potter and the deathly hallows : part 1' opened worldwide at cinemas last week and, when I last checked, had earned something like $61.2 million for its opening day (including midnight screenings)...which got me thinking, what are the top 5 movie opening day earnings? After some serious Google-Fu, I now know the answer. And so do you :)

Saturday, November 20, 2010

"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough."- Roger Ebert

I promised you a post today and here it is! One of my many siblings used to manage a video/dvd store for a few years and she was exceptionally good at it. She had a knack for knowing what movies or games to recommend to people, made the store buckletloads of money without even trying and generally enjoyed it all. We have quite different tastes in movies. In fact, she has this idea that I like 'arty farty' stuff and I'm not sure where that comes from because I adore bang-bang-shoot-em-ups, mysteries, documentaries, horrors and romantic comedies as much as the next person. One night recently we were sitting around talking films when my sister decided that I could benefit from a a little less arty-farty - and wrote out a list of top 5 movies I need to watch. Stat! Like a badly played hand of poker, I'm calling her bluff. Eep. I do have to admit to a little bit of apprehension because it's long been my belief that one man's EWW is another man's OOH. So, on with the list :)

Friday, November 19, 2010

"Good taste is the excuse I have given for leading such a bad life." - Oscar Wilde

Have you led such a bad life, readers? Do you have excellent taste in books, movies, music? Only time, and blogger's inbuilt stats tools, know :) I was poking around in the Stats section of our Top 5 blog and came across info displaying the most looked at pages...which translates into this fly-by posting of our top 5 most looked at Top 5 posts. Oy, what a mouthful! And you know what? They tell me next to nothing about your varied interests at all LOL You'll find a link to each of the separate posts below as well as their full introduction. Enjoy :P

Monday, November 8, 2010

The idea of a personal theme song is one that appeals greatly. To me, at least :) I used to watch the Ally McBeal show - seasons 1 and 2, anyway, and then I lost interest because the storyline started to get odd(er). But one of Ally's weird ideas has stuck with me ever since, and it's the thought that each person needs their very own theme song. You may (or may not) remember that Ally's personal theme song was 'Tell him' by The Exciters and every time she thought of it she'd automatically feel more confident, happier and ready to face anything. Never in a million years will I be Ally McBeal, but I appreciate the sentiment, so much so that I've spent years since then trying to find a 'one size fits all' theme song. With no luck. Probably because I like lots of different songs for different moods and, when the situation fits, I'll pull them on and off like itchy woollen jerseys. This post is a quick Top 5 list of the most recent songs I have considered as theme songs for moi! This month, anyway :)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

"Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you."- Harold Bloom

I very firmly believe that. I also believe that reading badly (i.e. so called 'trashy') is another great (albeit guilty) pleasure of mine, too :) Both are time well spent. I heart our cataloguing people. They let me browse the new books trolleys at all hours of the work day and never say a word when I go madly racing off clutching the next round of interesting books/dvds/cds for a top 5 post. Even though I'm sure I resemble nothing short of Gollum feverishly brandishing his precious :0)

A quick-ish post from me that is simply the most recent top 5 titles I 'discovered' while stalking our ever patient cataloguing staff. Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I have to apologise for only having 2 posts up for the whole of October! Bad, bad library people. Danielle and I were both involved with the Auckland Libraries website which, funnily enough, is the subject of today's Top 5 post. What a coincidence. Well, no, it's not. The team who worked on this site did a great job and the site looks fantastic and it's worth sharing :)

If you haven't yet had the chance to check out the new Auckland Libraries website then...I'm going to think you live under a rock. Or, worse, without the internet *gasp* It has pretty much everything you'd need to know about what to expect from our library services as of 1st Nov 2010: membership, locations and hours, fees and charges, news, events, new and recommended titles, eNewsletters, digital library and a few other odds and ends. In today's post I've chosen the 5 pages I love most in the new site. I wanted to use them all and have double/triple-ups but that would be cheating :P Enough from me! On to the list. Each link will open in a separate window so you can check out the pros and cons of each page and still keep the Top 5 Goodies blog up.